Does anyone know where i can find what the legislation says:
What number of worked hours equals a job?
Whether an employer still has the right to have labour on stand by and not offer hours or only limited hours?

I found this:
Payment under a contract of service can include wages, salary, commission and piece rates.

Employees include:

people who have been offered and have accepted a job, but are yet to start working
permanent employees (full-time and part-time)
fixed-term employees (full-time and part-time)
casual employees
homeworkers
seasonal employees
employees on probationary and trial periods.

An employee is not:

a self-employed or independent contractor
a volunteer who does not receive a reward for working
a sharemilker
a real estate agent whose agreement says they are an independent contractor
in some cases, a person who works in film production.

This statement sets out the Labour Inspectorate’s position on work in a business operation without payment of wages.

Full time work

Full time usually means a person works 40 hours a week, but could mean from 30 to 40 hours.
Start and finish times can vary depending on circumstances. For example, a parent might start early or work shorter hours so they can collect their children from school.
Full-time employees sometimes work shifts, and may work outside of standard business hours. These shifts may be set hours, or change from week to week.

Savemart shows why unions are vital for New Zealand says The Standard.Those of us who are keen op shoppers will have been following the explosive story of Savemart employees over the last few weeks.John Campbell on Radio New Zealand forst aired the allegations that employees in the New Lynn store were being made to sort through bales of filthy clothing dumped in Child Cancer charity bins without gloves.Employees found used syringes dirty nappies bloody underwear,sex toys, and even a dumped sheeps head.Just as importantly for Savemart shoppers the clothese are not cleaned before sale…..tbc…..

” WorkSafe spokesperson Jo Pugh said if that was true, it was almost certainly a breach of health and safety laws.

“What you’re talking about in terms of the provision of PPE or gloves, that’s a known control for minimising many different kinds of risks. So if the case is as described, it really seems a no-brainer for the company to provide gloves to minimise what sounds like real serious risk to workers.”

Ms Pugh said WorkSafe staff have been asked to look into conditions at Save Mart’s New Lynn branch, in order to get a “clearer picture”.

Then on Friday RNZ reported that staff at the branch who were also union workers were first segregated from other staff, and then told they were being made redundant with 4 weeks notice,

Union workers who complained about unsafe conditions at Save Mart stores have been made redundant, soon after John Campbell was invited to the New Lynn store to see the operation for himself.

First Union organiser Graham McKean told Checkpoint that while investigators were at the New Lynn store today, the 10 union members at the store were given four weeks notice of redundancy.

“We’ve got a whole bunch of union members – and they’re all women – who have commitments, children, some of them are solo mothers and they’re distraught and don’t know where to turn. We now have to navigate through that.”

Mr McKean said he could not comment on whether non-union staff had also lost their jobs.

Earlier, Save Mart owner Tom Doonan allowed Checkpoint to talk to staff at the New Lynn store, but after being promised free reign to talk to staff, RNZ was prevented from speaking to union staff.”

It looks very like Savemart is trying to remove union members. I hope they’re prevented from doing so & made to treat workers decently in future.

lilith7, I believe the owner Tom Doonan has since Monday announced that Savemart would be re-instating those 10 women who joined the union.Union members will now be using crowdfunding to train health and safety representatives in Savemart stores.This will help Savemart become a safer place for employees and also for customers who shop there. Savemart owner Tom Doonan has made a good profit for many years off others charity.Its about time a better safer deal is won for those who sort clothes,clean the stores and put money through the till.First Union members are also calling for everyone working at Savemart to contact their union and get behind the campaign. We may support them once again how about you?